This invention relates to apparatus for creating electric power by harnessing the wind's energy and, more particularly, to a novel and unique apparatus which employs wind driven sails mounted upon a plurality of adjacent, endless tracks to power a generator.
With the advent of the widespread use of electricity, man has continued in his pursuit of finding new and inexpensive sources of producing electricity. Wind power has long been used as one such source. It was found not only to be a significantly inexpensive source of power, but it also had the advantage of not having any adverse affect on our environment, as do many other of man's sources of electricity.
Such wind power apparatus typically include an arrangement of vanes, propellers or sails to capture the force of the wind, as seen in the earliest forms of wind mills. A more recent wind power machine employing wind driven sails can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,643, issued to Davison in May of 1973.
The Davison patent provides truck mounted sails which are adjustable about a vertical pivot. The trucks travel along an endless, horizontal track which allows driving of an electric generator when it is moved by the sails catching the wind. The sails must be adjusted by an electric motor drive controlled by a wind vane such that they offer the greatest wind resistance along one run of the track and the least resistance while moving in the reverse direction along the other run of the track. Furthermore, the Davison sails do not always have their surfaces facing into the wind such that the direction of the wind is normal to the surface of the sail, as do the present invention's sails. Other differences will become obvious in the ensuing description of applicant's invention.
The main object of the present invention is to provide very efficient apparatus for harnessing wind power.
Another object is to provide simple and economical means for producing significant amounts of electricity.
Other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.